* " North star" sphere, allowing passengers to get a birds eye view of the ship and surroundings, 91 meters up in the air. Will be able to take 13 People at a time and will also be able to reserve for weddings and other "happenings"

* 373 cabins on the inside will get " Virtual " balconies, where Pictures from the outside will be shown on one of the walls.

* A sports and recreation are where you can play basket, volley and football on daytime. On sellected hours, there will also be a Circus school here. In the evenings, the area will be changed and have bumper cars and rollerskates.

* Ripchord. an attraction where you can experience flying in the air inside a tube where airwaves circulate.

* Goodmother of this ship: Kristin Chenoweth

The sister ship Anthem of the Seas will be released in 2015

Name: Quantum of the Seas.

Length: 348 meter.

Beam: 41 meter.

Tonnage: 167800.

Speed: 22 knop.

Number of cabins: 2090 hytter.

Max number of guests: 4905.

Yard: Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Tyskland.

Launching: November 2014.

Homeport: New York winter 2014/15, With crossings to Bahamas and Caribbean

Can't wait for Quantum to make her maiden voyage! Booking opens up for Crown & Anchor members next month. I wonder if I convince Mrs. GP. or maybe put down a downpayment on it while we take our cruise in January on another RCI Meyerwerft-built ship, Serenade of the SeasThe virtual balconies seem quite interesting and might convince me to try an interior cabin. I'm a bit skeptical of North Star. I recall when Oasis of the Seas, first entered service you could do a ride in an aerostat that was tethered to the ship, but I seem to recall this was removed when she received her short refit to put the Dreamworks Experience onboard her.

Additionally Quantum, will initially sail out of Cape Liberty in Bayonne, NJ, not New York proper. Also the Sportsplex that you mention will have a floating DJ booth so at night it can be a dance club.

I'm also interested to see what innovations, if any, over Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas are made on the third Oasis-class ship when she comes into the fleet. Then I might be saying Vive la France!

South Carolina - too small to be its own country, too big to be a mental asylum.

The more cruises I take the more I find myself looking for the smaller and smaller ships. I want to be on a boat, not a city that happens to be floating. I get that a lot of people want that, and that's cool but its just not for me.

Also, I don't like being in a small port town with 5000 people at the same time. I was in Grand Cayman last month (flew in, not on a cruise) and there were days were there were literally 6 ships in at once. There had to be 20,000 people there. It was more crowded than rush hour Manhattan. Not a fun experience.

Quoting armitageshanks (Reply 5):The more cruises I take the more I find myself looking for the smaller and smaller ships. I want to be on a boat, not a city that happens to be floating. I get that a lot of people want that, and that's cool but its just not for me.

That's an excellent point that was made at the press event for Quantum - RCI doesn't believe in a one size fits all approach. For you one of the Vision or Radiance class ships might be more appealing. I will say, my wife and I took a vacation on Freedom of the Seas a few years ago and we were impressed with the fact that despite there were thousands of people, you really didn't get the feeling of being cramped. There always seemed to be some place you could go and feel like you were completely alone. I love the helicopter landing pad areas on RCI's ship for that reason - it seems like not everybody knows how to get there and it's nice to get some air out there.

South Carolina - too small to be its own country, too big to be a mental asylum.

I don't know if it's a Sequel to Quantum of Solace, but from what I understand the name is meant to illustrate that this is the ship to measure other cruise ship innovations against. Not a huge fan of it either, but I do like Anthem's name.

South Carolina - too small to be its own country, too big to be a mental asylum.

Quoting armitageshanks (Reply 5):The more cruises I take the more I find myself looking for the smaller and smaller ships. I want to be on a boat, not a city that happens to be floating. I get that a lot of people want that, and that's cool but its just not for me.

That's why my family preferred Enchantment of the Seas[/[i]. Very nice ship. Only ship we've repeated. Much more cozy and enjoyable than the huge ships... not that [i]Enchantment is small, because it's still nearly the size of an aircraft carrier...

Quoting CPH-R (Reply 11):
A shame, had it been STX Europe in Turku, we would have gotten another chance to see a Great Belt bridge limbo

Actually you may not have. The Quantum class are actually smaller than the Oasis class and is closer in size to the earlier Freedom class. I don't recall if any of the Freedoms had to do the Great Belt bridge limbo, but I don't think they did.

South Carolina - too small to be its own country, too big to be a mental asylum.

Looks like that North Star is straight from the London Eye - which means it will probably be fairly successful.

Our RCCL cruise was on the Navigator of the Seas (a Voyager class ship) and it was very enjoyable. I really enjoyed the Windjammer when leaving a port - provided a great view while enjoying a cuppa. Overall the cruise was so enjoyable as to make RCCL as our preference for future cruises. I might be interested in the Quantum if she does some Med cruises in the future.

Quoting PanHAM (Reply 15):Impressive. 14770 TEU through the narrows, However she could not get through there fully laden, not even with empty boxes.

Nope, but in a way I kind of liked that. The E-class would leave her "birthplace" for good after passing throw the narrows A real shame Maersk threw the shipyard under the bus just like that, but they just couldn't compete with their (South) Korean competitors.

The new ship looks innovative and inviting. It seams that with every new generation of RCCL ship, new amenities are added.
The Quantum Class has new venues like a "Canada Arm" like boom for passengers to see the ocean, a bumper car station and a vertical wind tunnel along with the earlier venues like the Flow-rider, rock wall and the whirlpools on the side of the ship.

"And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by." John Masefield Sea-Fever

I have to say I always enjoy all the ships I go on. You take it for what it is. I do personally prefer the 4-5 Star more conservative lines these days such as Cunard and Holland America. Silversea and Crystal are amongst the top of the crop.

If you want a cheaper and informal experience then RCI fit the bill. I do love the new innovations and count down to any new ship launch.

I saw a media/trade video and it looks great. Two 70 looks quite cool. The staterooms with balcony walls is interesting but I will wait to see it in person before I comment on it further. Often artists impressions are very different from what it looks and feels like in real life.

Quoting garnetpalmetto (Reply 14):I don't recall if any of the Freedoms had to do the Great Belt bridge limbo, but I don't think they did.

They did, they put lower stacks on them to go under the bridge, then replaced them with the correct ones.

Quoting CPH-R (Reply 18):A real shame Maersk threw the shipyard under the bus just like that, but they just couldn't compete with their (South) Korean competitors.

They didn't throw it under the bus it's just fact that Europe is far to expensive a place to build box ship and cargo vessles, Danish unions also have something to do with it, plus the Tripple E's would have been able to leave the yard, it was tricky enough putting the E class to sea.

25 PanHAM
: Not to forget the subsidies with which countries like Korea etc. support their ship building industry.

26 garnetpalmetto
: I stand corrected then! I knew about the retractable funnels on the Oasis class. I wonder since #3 won't have to do the Limbo at all if it will have

27 kiwirob
: The Koreans don't subsidise their shipbuilding industry, they did back in the 90's but to a far lesser degree than the Europeans subsidised their ind

28 txjim
: Well if Carnival utilized galley slaves like the Magic Christian did, they would never get stuck after a generator failure, would they? And think of

29 trav110
: Of all people, Kristen Chenowith is the goodmother? I thought they preferred to use political figures as goodmothers, not b-list celebrities.